I will, however, say, that I got very sick of reading about Soledad O’Brien after she had her twins. Everything written about her was how incredible and great and wonderful. But she had two nannies. That’s great – but most women can’t afford two nannies. It’s just not a realistic model for how we can balance our lives.

I like to look to how other women manage and figure out what options might exist that I’d never considered before. Why? BEcause I know I don’t have all the answers, and I always look to improve what I’m doing. Because I know I’m flawed. Because I know I’m human.

I’m a little fuzzy on Ms. Griffin’s timetable of the events in her life, so I can’t give a definitive answer about which periods of her life she’s been working and which periods of her life she hasn’t. If you firmly believe, as she does, that a woman should be able to make those kinds of choices without society second-guessing her, then does it really matter to us, who are not part of Ms. Griffin’s family, if she’s staying at home or if she’s out of the house? All I know for certain is that she described herself as a stay-at-home mom who, in spite of what extreme feminists preach to her about bonds of servitude, subordination to a husband, and lack of self-fulfillment, enjoys being a stay-at-home mom. Though those extreme feminist sentiments were in vogue during the 60’s, they have not disappeared even though they are no longer in vogue now. Ms. Griffin reports that she still has extreme feminist volleys aimed at her, and the audience at Oberlin College seemed to acknowledge that such an ideology is still present.

Okay – Michelle Malkin an Oberlin grad, eh? What did they do to her? Just teasing. She’s witty but I don’t like her wit a lot of the time. It’s not my style, though clearly a lot of people really like her. I have found some extremely helpful posts there though and some stuff that I won’t see anywhere else. There was a time when I was checking it daily but that was around the Israel-Hezbollah stuff. Not I might check it once a month or so.

As for your proposal about swapping out winners and losers to increase female presence? No can do because I’m really about the voters. But in addition, we need to look out for Ohio and, you know, there’s just no way anyone would convince that Rich Cordray should be replaced – for any reason.

Now – about your follow up to my post about Griffin’s presentation: I agree that rebuttals to the ideology of the 60s and 70s is fine. But if I were a person speaking on the topic, I would spend extremely little time on that – it’s just not relevant much today – I don’t think anyway.

As for her being a stay at home mom, I think that’s only since November 8 or so when she resigned. I know the VA GOP chair position was non-paying, but I’m sure she put in a minimum of 10-20 hours/week if not more, don’t you think, during much of the time she held that post, no?

Thanks for the added info.

Though she makes occasional speeches, Ms. Griffin is a stay-at-home mom right now, and she loves it. She realizes that all families can’t have a stay-at-home parent, so she’s very grateful that she has a choice in the matter.

Though 21st-century feminism is as you describe, there are still throwbacks to yesteryear spouting venomous anti-marriage, anti-family, and anti-male pronouncements, and judging by the audience reaction (overwhelmingly Oberlin College students), many have been exposed or are currently being exposed to this extreme ideology. I don’t view Ms. Griffins’s speech as setting feminism back a few years. I think that as long as this ideology continues to be noised about, reported on, and/or published, it’s okay for Ms. Griffin to offer rebuttals to such an ideology in her speeches.

As an aside, Ms. Griffin, in her opening remarks, had thought of an even more controversial title than “Failures of Feminism,” but she thought that this title would be sufficient to raise enough eyebrows to draw an audience (and she did draw an audience), so she left well enough alone.

Ok – last post first?

Glad you went and thanks for sharing that information. My comment is basically that she’s pulling up some very old stuff – most women who consider themselves 21st century feminists would never ascribe to the stuf you say she said they believe. The stay at home mom hit is very old school. The thoughts of Freidan, Steinem and Greer obviously also have tempered and been adapted to women now, as opposed to the 60s and 70s, when those women’s theories predominated. Simply, times have changed.

The dialogue between moms who are only at home and moms who do any other combination of being at home and out of the house (working) is voiced frequently in books and in magazine articles and so on. The tension is there – no question.

But more and more, there are excellent examples of society’s adaptation to the fact that women fulfill multiple roles, sometimes at the same time and sometimes sequentially.

One of the most obvious examples of this is Meredith Viera. I don’t watch TV and I only know about her from reading about her, but every single thing I’ve read or heard about her relies on her assertion of when was time to be with her family and when it was time to pursue her career in the media.

Additionally, Forbes, Fortune and others have frequently been writing about women in business and, very exciting, programs being developed by companies and colleges called “on ramps” – programs that allow women to re-enter the work force after having been out for some time, for whatever reason. The realization being that women shouldn’t be written off, unless of course they want to be, and employers would be wise to provide options for these women.

To me, that’s really what the 21st century’s incarnation of feminism is about: allowing women to pursue the path that they desire, just as men always have, with no barriers put up simply because we’re women and might choose to have kids, or choose not to have kids. Ask any female law firm partner without kids if she gets evil eyes. It’s no fun for them sometimes either, and so we have to remember that that kind of thing happens on both ends. Stay at home moms can be pretty nasty to women who choose not to have kids and be all about a career.

Again – women like myself, and many of my friends, our feminism is having choice, making choices and not being vilified for WHATEVER choice we make. THAT’s standing up for women, I think anyway.

Last thing, it would be unfortunate if Ms. Griffin doesn’t help women move beyond the ideas of the 60s and 70s feminism and help promote women and all our options as they exist now. Did you feel that she did try to do that a bit? Again, the White House Project, nonpartisan, is exactly that kind of entity seeking to assist women now, as it suits life and society and family now.

I am DYING to know how her kids gotten taken care of, ages nine months to six years old or so, when she first took up the job as head of the VA GOP. I read that her husband picked up some slack – but how else did she do it?

Do you know that when I met Jennifer Brunner at Meet the Bloggers, the first thing I asked her after the session was over was, How did you do it?? Because she has three now pretty much out of the house kids – I think one might be a junior or senior in h.s. but I’m not
certain – they might all be in their 20s.

That kind of knowledge – about how women juggle, and learning that they do take some time off etc. – that’s the knowledge that forwards women’s choices and contributions.

Not hanging on to seminal theories that no longer describe today’s women.

Again – thanks for going and leaving a comment. I hope to read more about it!

The speech targeted a small, though vocal, segment of the feminist community. She singled out Freidan, Steinem, and Greer, to give you an idea of which feminists Ms. Griffin was talking about. In a nutshell, she took exception to the ideology that is anti-family, anti-marriage, and anti-male. She takes aim at the feminists who warn women not to marry because doing so would be to subordinate oneself to a man. Further, she takes aim at the feminists who look upon family obligations as chains of servitude, who say that stay-at-home moms can’t possibly feel fulfilled or reach their fullest potential.

By the way, the lecture hall was packed.